Time to hand out some pretend midseason awards. Why? Because everyone else is doing it and we're unoriginal. Here they are, fantasy hockey style…

Best single game statistical performance

These were the games that caused owners to distract the rest of the office the next morning with their furious fist-pumping after noting that their fantasy squad just moved up to first place. All on the basis of one player's performance.

Phil Kessel had four points in that game, but in Lupul we have the luxury of a player who scores and knows what a hit is. Actually, Kessel is on pace for a whopping 16 hits, which would bury his previous high of 13 set in 2009-10.

The underrated Versteeg has clicked with Stephen Weiss and the emerging Tomas Fleischmann to form, statistically, the best line in the NHL this season.

Nominated — Joffrey Lupul, Toronto Maple Leafs

Lupul will set a career high in points by late January thanks to strong chemistry with Phil Kessel combined with finally being healthy and in the prime of his career. It's been five years since he's last played 80 games, so Brian Burke is Lupul owners are keeping their fingers crossed.

See, Ilya? It is possible for a forward on this team to be a plus player! The Devils should call up another prospect and keep proving to Kovalchuk that it can be done. Henrique is second in the rookie scoring race and probably wasn't drafted in more than 1 percent of Yahoo! leagues, if I were to guess.

Poolies in one-year leagues knew that this was a boom or bust pick in one-year leagues, but most figured it would be "bust". Listening to the majority of experts, they would have figured that Hopkins "wasn't ready" or "wasn't strong enough" and that he would be a training camp cut. Even after a huge camp, the thinking out there was that he would get in nine games and then sent back to junior. Instead…only 17 players have more points.

Elliott went into camp competing with highly-touted prospect Ben Bishop for a job as a backup goaltender. Three months later, he leads the league in save percentage and is second in goals against average. The only reason that he doesn't have 20 wins at this point is because his contract is lacking the zeros that Jaroslav Halak's has. I would be shocked if he was drafted in a single league.

Hartnell's penalty minutes are down this year (on pace for 115), but his points, power-play goals and plus/minus are each set to hit career highs. His plus/minus rating is 33 higher than Ilya Kovalchuk's and 42 better than Eric Staal's.

Nominated — Joffrey Lupul, Toronto Maple Leafs

Even if Loops slows down, he's still a decent bet to get 35 goals, 70 points, 70 penalty minutes and 240 shots on goal. If his back can hold out for an entire campaign, he'll push more than a few owners over the top.

He'll be 35 in March, yet he's probably going to set a career high in points. Chara's best fantasy season was in 2007-08 when he managed 51 points, 114 PIM and was plus-14. This season he's on pace for 59 points, 121 PIM and plus-54.

Winner — Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins

I'm guessing you raised an eyebrow when you saw this name here, when so many big names were nominated. But Marchand is second in plus/minus (plus-25) and is the only player in the league with plus-9 or better who has more than 50 penalty minutes. He's on pace for 71 points, and his shot total is decent enough to also help.

One-Category Wonder

These guys are good for one thing, and one thing only. They'll give you little help in the other areas of your league.

Nominated for the second year in a row, his candidacy is hindered by a decent and actually helpful plus/minus rating (plus-8). Thornton scoring 36 goals is as much a faded memory as PJ Stock's hockey career.

The assist machine is back, now that he's free of the crushing depth that was in Chicago. If he wasn't on pace for the second highest shot total of his career (prorated 137 shots) he would win this prestigious award.

At 19-7, he'd be a shoe-in for the Cy Young. But that's his goals-assists ratio. Not many 40-goal scorers fall short of 60 points, but it could very well happen for Michalek. He's also a minus player with negligible penalty minutes.

The Flyers' rookie is leading the league in penalty minutes, but will be lucky to have 10 points and 40 shots on goal come April. Rinaldo is also a minus-7, which is third worst on the team.

The Hot/Cold Award

These guys frustrate the hell out of you. You dress him for the week and he goes four games without a point. So you bench him and he tallies six points in three games. So you hurriedly dress him for the following week and craps the bed again. And so forth…

Wideman has nine points in his last eight games and he started 2011-12 with 10 in 10. In between, he's been miserable. Not only did he manage just four points in 16 games, but he was also a minus-13 during that middle window.

Hudler's return from a one-year stint in the KHL couldn't have been more meh. And then when he was a healthy scratch after starting off this season with four points in nine games, many owners bailed. In fact, even after that benching he managed just three in his next eight. But he put himself back on the map with 14 in his next 14. Another tease? Maybe. He has just one point in his last four games.

After one point in six games, Looch tallied 13 in his next eight. After that, he managed just two in eight before notching seven points in six games. He's given fantasy owners more ups and downs than the doctor does with Peter Griffin here:

The WTF Award

These players are producing so far below expectations that some fantasy owners have stopped paying attention since their entire team is ruined by that one Staal failure.

At this point, I'd prefer the guy who always gets hurt for 15 or 20 games versus this new "healthy" version. At least the injury-prone version would still get 60 or 70 points. The current incarnation is on pace for 37.

If you, like myself, took advantage of the "Carter is now on the first line and gets to play with Rick Nash" hype in the summer and traded him away, then kudos! You see, Carter was always getting first-line minutes. Now he's just on a really really really bad team and getting them.

After his last two seasons, Stewart was looking like a potential 70-point player with penalty minute upside — he just needed to stay healthy. But here is, at full health, and playing like a 40-point depth guy. At least we're seeing that PIM upside.

I could say he's turning things around, but he doesn't have a point in his last six games. I could say that if we look at the bigger picture, he's a lock to bounce back… but he is a minus-33 in his last 113 games. Is that picture big enough? He had 100 points back in 1942, but it's probably time to stop hanging your hopes on that blip.